So I guess I should really write a blog. I’ve been meaning to but with one issue or another it always becomes a time suck. Well here we are, still in limbo.

The first edition has been finished and in shops for a while now. Sales are trickling in but we really need to spread the word more and more. However, slowly it is happening. We are still a few weeks off writing the reviews to add to the next edition. Right now, students are gearing up for the midterm tests. So, it’s all very busy.

In May, I had the opportunity to present the book in front of a prefectural English teachers meeting, which definitely generated some interest. It’s also funny how different the stage looks from in front of the glaring lights and how hard it is to judge if the microphone is working. Still, after sitting through a two hour lecture in Japanese, the brief ideas of what I wanted to say to the group flitting through my head, I actually made a bit of a mess of this. However, I got the message across. After the presentation, which was only a few minutes, many of the teachers looked at the book and one of them even bought a copy right there.

With that done, there isn’t much on the horizon until we start the project with the next lot. S unless we have a staggering increase in sales or the book spontaneously combusts or something, we’ll keep our head down.

Please share news of this project with anyone you think might be interested.

This is it! The book is now available in all Amazon stores. So I guess our release date is now. As of 20th March, 2013 ”Let’s Pop Culture! o(^0^)o A guide to Japanese culture written by real Japanese high school students in English!” is released!goo.gl/N4zf6 (US) goo.gl/HehUf (UK) goo.gl/m66yT (JP)

It’s been a long, hard road.

Today I’m visiting classes to give them the good news, show the book to those who haven’t seen it, and deliver my annual ALT prize for those students who made an effort with English this year. I made some key rings featuring the panda mascot of my Japanese culture blog (http://sakurapandateatime.blogspot.com). Hopefully, they will have the sense to get curious and google it to find out what Sakura Panda Tea Time is. It will be good study for them to try and understand what I am saying about familiar topics.

Yesterday, I sent out the exclusive PDF version of our book to the Indiegogo backers. I’ve already had one person come back with how happy they are,so that’s really nice to hear. I hope the others are suitably proud.

We’ll be able to fulfill the other perks when the school receives its first shipment of books. That should be April 1st.

The new term has started. All the students and teachers at Mukaiyama wish you a successful and productive new year!

I’m afraid that the winter vacation proved to be busier than I expected. So I wasn’t able to complete the book on time. As such, our new target for sending it to the publishers s the end of January. Please don’t be concerned. This doesn’t affect the quality of the book at all, we just want to make sure we finish a quality product.

It’s coming along nicely, though its important to me that we have a finished product before the end of the school year (March, here in Japan) as I fear some of the students will forget about this project!

That’s it for now. I’ll resume more regular updates as I get settled back into work!

I recently published a video on YouTube showing how I am formatting the book and its current status. I’m writing this blog from school though and while the school computers block YouTube (which is completely bizarre because it’s an incredible resource for teachers) andmy iPad cannot access anything but the YouTube app or mobile site through which I cannot get the embed code. So for now, here is a link:formatting video I’ll add the embedded video when I return home to the land of unrestricted Internet. Boy, am I glad I’m not living in China!

I’m still formatting, but its progressed a little bit. We’ve had a few new founders thanks to the article published about us last week, but we are still far behind. http://www.indiegogo.com/letspopculture so please spread this link!

In other news, I’m doing a speech project at my other school and on Monday a boy gave a speech on his favorite type of music. It’s Visual-K, a very Japanese mix of glam rock and heavy metal. For the speech he drew some very cool pictures. So, I asked the teachers if I could get permission to use his pictures in Mukaiyama’s book. They agreed and so did the boy. He’s from the wrong school but I’m desperate for more illustrations so I don’t think it matters too much! He’s still a Japanese student.

I have a huge pile of marking…. And this is just the beginning. So forgive me if updates are sparse this week. I should be able to update at Mukaiyama as this is my other school’s tests and they can’t leave the building. However I will be more worn out!

The cover image is almost done and we are waiting for email responses from Studio Ghibli and Miss Alodia about using their images.

It’s been a while. I’ve been on vacation, and took a lovely trip to Hong Kong. It’s really great over there. Anyway, now that I’m back, I can continue to give you information about the project.

It’s summer vacation now. All the students have chosen their topics and there is quite a variety! It’s surprised me, but I’m very pleased. Here is an example of one class’ topic sheet.

So, now, during the vacation, the students are writing their first drafts of their reports. The deadline is 1st September. After that, I’ll mark them and ask them to write a final report on computer. That is what we will use in the book. They’ve done so well at choosing interesting topics that I’m sure their reports will be just as impressive!

As for me, I’m going to start preparing for the Indiegogo.com project funding drive. I’m going to have some advertisements made, I’ll spread the word online and I’m going to contact a few, more famous people who might be interested in just writing a tweet or Facebook post to their legions of fans for us. Every little bit helps!

You can do the same! If you tell people about the project we can get more backers and raise a huge amount of money for earthquake victims and get more copies of this book ready for the release date.

I’ll be updating here, and on our Facebook page, more regularly now. So please come back and follow our progress, or click that subscribe button on the right hand side of the page. Thanks! We all appreciate it.